Playing the Royal Game

‘I will never step aside!’ He had certainly not anticipated this outcome. In that bar, with Allegra, he had been certain, absolutely certain, that his father would demand that they part, that if they insisted on going ahead with the marriage, then he would have to step down. He had promised this to Allegra and now he had been outmaneuvered, and he had to go back up there and tell her. But first he would try to dissuade his father. ‘How can I marry her?’

‘You should have thought of that when you asked her!’

‘It was different in London,’ Alex said. ‘I see now that here she doesn’t fit in. I don’t love her....’

‘Thank goodness for that,’ the king said. ‘You can keep your mind on the job then.’

‘Alessandro,’ his mother urgently interrupted, but Alex was not listening.

‘Look, I’ve realised my mistake—she’s completely unsuitable.’

‘Well, it’s too late for that,’ the king said. ‘The people—’

‘You really want that vulgar family to be welcomed into ours? You really think Allegra would make a suitable queen?’

‘Alessandro!’ his mother said again, but Alex’s mind was only on one thing—he had no intention of stepping aside.

‘I am supposed to spend the rest of my life with this woman, a woman so ordinary?’

He heard a gasp.

He knew it was her, before he even turned around.

‘Allegra...’

‘Please don’t...’ She put her hand up to stop him. ‘I think enough has already been said.’

She didn’t run from the study; instead she walked in a daze back to the royal wing, and looked at the bed that was crumpled and scattered with newspapers. To think that she had lain there and held on to a glimmer of hope, that she had actually been going to tell Alex not to say anything too hasty!

He’d have laughed in her face had she told him she would consider it.

‘Allegra.’

He didn’t knock; it was his bedroom after all, his palace, his people....

Her heart.

‘What are you doing?’

‘What does it look like?’ She was flinging her clothes onto the bed. ‘I need a suitcase, my passport...’

‘You’re not going anywhere.’

‘Oh, yes, I am.’ She’d tried ringing Izzy, Angel, her brother Ben, but no one was picking up, so instead she would sort it herself. ‘I’m going to go over to the hotel—’

‘Excuse me?’

‘I’m going to tell my family.’ Absolutely she was. ‘My vulgar family.’ She was trying not to cry.

‘What you heard down there...I was trying to make my father see how hopeless it was. What I said about you and your family—’

‘Was said with such conviction,’ she finished for him. ‘I’m going to speak to them now. I’m going to tell my dad what I should have told him in the first place.’

‘Really?’ Alex cut in. ‘Perhaps tell him he should ring his friend too, give him forewarning.’

‘His friend?’

‘The one who wrote the unauthorised biography—he’s going to be busy over the coming months....’

‘Don’t try to threaten me.’

‘I’m not threatening you, Allegra. I’m telling you how it will be—because if you think this is all just going to disappear when you tell your father the truth...’ He paused for a moment to let his words sink in, to let her glimpse how it would be—and it would be! ‘My father will not allow the people of Santina to be subjected to two broken engagements in the space of a few short weeks. I agree with him. There are things going on right now, repercussions from last night, that need to be dealt with.’

‘What repercussions?’

‘Don’t concern yourself with that now, we have enough to deal with and the best way to do that is to set a wedding date.’

‘No, no.’ It was more a moan than a shout, horror sinking in. ‘You can’t expect me to go along with this now, after hearing what you just said. The next thing you know I’ll be marrying you just so we don’t upset the people.’

‘Would that really be such hell?’ It was as if she’d been delivered a terminal sentence instead of the chance to one day be queen. Still, rather than overwhelm her with that, he attempted logic. ‘Allegra, I accept that their reaction is unexpected—however, people are fickle. They change their minds easily. For now they are happy, today they celebrate. What you do not understand is that one false move, one indiscreet comment, one mistake, and their minds will change like that.’ He snapped his fingers in her face. ‘Then, it will be a different conversation I’m having with my father. When my father realises just how unsuited we are, there will be no other alternative than to wait it out here, or to end things and return to London.’